Valentine’s Day Money Drop (2.14.12)

Valentine’s Day was a celebration of love. Now, it seems, it’s all about money. Every year it becomes more and more commercialized. Every Valentine’s Day, we collectively spend an incredibly large amount of money on lavish gifts and extravagant dinners. Just how much money is an incredibly large amount? According to the National Retail Foundation, an estimated $15.7 billion dollars in 2011 alone. But this is hardly some fluke. We’ve been trained to think that spending money on someone (the more the better), will prove just how much they matter to us. Weren’t we always told, “Money can’t buy you love”?

So why is it each year we seem to so readily buy into the idea that it actually can? Why would it make sense to us that spending money shows someone that we love them? Perhaps it’s because having huge amounts of money matters so much to us in the first place. And just maybe it’s because we’ve been trained to think that too. So, the more we spend, the more we must love them, right? In a sense, Valentine’s Day is no longer a celebration of love. It’s a celebration of our love of money.

And on this day of love, what do we really do with all this money? We put it straight into the pockets of the corporations that have commoditized it and right back into the hands of the people that sold us this shrink-wrapped version of emotional commitment in the first place.

And what do those corporations do with a lot of that money?

They buy politicians.

They buy policy.

They buy speech.

Money can’t buy love… but it can buy speech?

This Valentine’s Day we are challenging you to do something different. We are challenging you to do something amazing. Don’t show the ones you love how much they matter by throwing money at them, make it meaningful. Show them they matter to you more than money. Show the world how much you care about all the things that matter to you more than money.

Don’t give it to corporations to buy more speech.

This Valentine’s Day, don’t send flowers.

Send a Message.

Valentine’s Day Money Drop

Why send flowers when you can send a message?

1) Stamp money.

2) Find building.

3) Throw it off.

#MicCheckWallStreet.

LEGAL DISCLAIMER: The intent behind stamping, printing on, or writing on currency with respect to #MicCheckWallStreet in general, or this specific action is not to render any money unfit to be reissued, and in fact the hope is that all the money will circulate as much as possible, and remain in circulation for as long as possible. Please use any of the templates for stamping, printing or writing on currency and or engage in this action at your own legal risk.